Child Labor: DOL Action Needed to Better Protect Working Children

What GAO Found An estimated 2.8 million children worked in the U.S. in 2023, according to GAO’s analysis. The Department of Labor (DOL) publishes statistical data that provide information on working children’s fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. These data are used to develop workplace safety strategies and policies, but data limitations and discontinued data sets have contributed to information gaps. For example: In DOL’s dataset on workplace fatalities, some data on the cause of death or industry in which the child worked are not publicly available. DOL changed how it collects data on working children’s injuries and illnesses, so data since 2021 cannot be compared to earlier years. Between 2015 and 2023, one DOL survey and two other federal datasets that contained child labor injury data ended. By mitigating child labor data gaps, DOL would be better positioned to identify and respond to dangerous working conditions for children. Since fiscal year 2015, the number of annual child labor violations that DOL cited and the number of children affected by their employers’ violations has generally increased, according to GAO’s analysis (see figure). Examples of violations include ch...